What Are the Impacts of the Trans Pacific Partnership?

There are quite a few issues that many US citizens are passionate about occurring in Pacific countries such as human trafficking, child laborers, extreme low cost of production, and dangerous work environments. The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is an organization of country leaders that are working to increase labor, environmental, and economic regulations in Pacific countries to help correct these social issues.

These are great goals for all Pacific countries, but what is the cost of implementing the TPP bill? The TPP bill will manipulate the global economy in order to implement their goals. Therefore, if a country is not complying with new workplace or environmental standards, the countries in the organization will not do trade with the specific Pacific country.

Improving labor in the Pacific countries is a great goal, but there are few key problems with implementing a Trans Pacific Partnership bill which includes:

Competition in the US Marketplace. If the United States is not heavily involved in the agreements and organization of global trade, the odds can easily become stacked against our country’s economy. A lot of the goods we buy are based on the prices of suppliers from Pacific Rim countries. This causes a potentially severe problem if a trading partner has violations under the TPP. Because we would be required to cease trade with that country, our economy would face potentially severe product shortages and price increases.

Potential Degradation of Industries. I grew up as NAFTA was being implemented, and I watched as North Carolina’s textile and furniture industries were decimated by the wave of low cost competitors across the border. I believe that offering incentives to Pacific Rim countries according to the TPP guidelines will once again allow unfair competition and will degrade other NC industries at a time where we need to be focusing on creating employment growth in our own country.

Manipulations in the Value of a Country’s Currency. The opportunity for a country to artificially manipulate its currency to slant the playing field is too great under the TPP. This practice can easily lead to the destabilization of industries and economies, and the TPP does not contain adequate protections against this potentially devastating practice.

I believe we must continually act to strengthen the free and open marketplace in the world, and the TPP was originally intended to move us all in that direction. Unfortunately, I believe that because the structure of the agreement is flawed, the TPP fails to reach its goal. I am AGAINST the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) due to the issues and potential for abuse.